ATWATER VISITS WHITE HOUSE

Lee Atwater bantered politics with President Bush in his first trip to the White House since being diagnosed as having an inoperable brain tumor.

Atwater, in a wheelchair, waved at photographers from the rear seat of his limousine as he was driven onto the White House grounds for breakfast Friday.The chairman of the Republican National Committee had a leisurely breakfast with Bush and a spirited discussion with the president and White House officials on political races, said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Leslie Goodman.

It was Atwater's first trip to the White House since shortly after he collapsed during a speech last March.

Goodman said that although "the overall prognosis has not changed" and Atwater's condition is still very serious, the 39-year-old chairman seems to have bounced back recently. "He's had bursts of energy," she said.